# Dynamic Derivations + Dynamic build graphs: next steps

DevFeed: [Dynamic Derivations + Dynamic build graphs: next steps](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/dynamic-derivations-dynamic-build-graphs-next-steps-31350.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://discourse.nixos.org/t/dynamic-derivations-dynamic-build-graphs-next-steps/79409>)

Author: tomberek

Published: 2026-08-07T18:58:35Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Announcements - NixOS Discourse](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/announcements-nixos-discourse.md>)

Topics: [Nix](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/nix.md>), [build performance](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/build-performance.md>), [systems](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/systems.md>), [build times](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/build-times.md>), [bazel](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/bazel.md>)

Tags: [announcements](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/announcements.md>), [bazel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bazel.md>), [build](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/build.md>), [ci](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ci.md>), [incremental](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/incremental.md>), [performant](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performant.md>), [ux](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ux.md>)

## AI overview

A proposal for a Dynamic Derivations working group in the Nix ecosystem outlines collaboration goals, user-experience refinement, infrastructure needs, and adoption efforts. The post also summarizes the feature's development history and discusses potential benefits such as faster rebuilds and fine-grained incremental builds.

## Source excerpt

After the long-history (see below) of Dynamic Derivations we are at a point where there are many groups exploring the feature and I am proposing a working group to: share the experiences of the implementors refine the user experience based on usage of the various PoCs determine infrastructure needs deduplicate work raise awareness build momentum for adoption ... anything else relevant I believe this feature has the potential to be a game-changer. Faster rebuilds, easier development, reduced pressure on CI systems, cacheable and alternative forms of instantiation, less need for "lang2nix", close the gap with Bazel, and fine-grained incremental builds. Along with the existing work on better schedulers, RBE-style remote builders, bytecode evaluation, parallel eval, memory optimizations (thanks @xokdvium !), and so much more - this is an exciting time for Nix and I can see DynDrvs as a way to fix some of the outstanding UX issues Nix has in day-to-day usage. There is even work to make IFD more performant, there is lots of design space to explore here. This should be a part of what Nix has to offer the world. @Ericson2314 has devoted years to this, and it deserves the payoff of becoming a mature feature. This is a call to action. Let's consider collaboration and a semimonthly meeting to at least say hello + consider next steps: Dynamic Derivations Working Group - Crab Fit History Dynamic Derivations have been in-progress for a long time. This has much of the history that I can put together. Let me know if this can be more complete. (and if anyone can help move/migrate into the wiki?) Build Systems à la Carte : 2018 RFC started Apr 2021 by @Ericson2314 and @L-as with [RFC 0092] Computed derivations by Ericson2314 - Pull Request #92 - NixOS/rfcs - GitHub (after reworking RFC 0040). Based on Initial example PoC by @L-as GitHub - L-as/nix-build.nix: nix-build.nix with RFC 92 - GitHub Content-addressed Nix Dec 2021: Implementing a content-addressed Nix by @thufschmitt. RFC Shep